1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for determining an energy consumption of a production system, and to a method for operating the production system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Production systems are currently being simulated during a very early design phase to increase their throughput and efficiency. By way of example, simulation programs such as Plant Simulation from Technomatrix/SIEMENS™ are being used for this purpose. Such programs develop a model for the planned installation or the production system, where the model enables fast simulation and testing of various control strategies. The results of the simulation are used to identify the layout of the production system and control strategies during the design of the production system.
However, a load-dependent energy consumption cannot be determined with the aid of the simulation programs currently in use. During the design of the production system, the energy consumption is estimated “by hand”, and this normally leads to a substantial overestimation of the energy consumption. Moreover, it is impossible to optimize the operation of the production system to reduce the energy consumption with the aid of the previously named programs. However, this is an important aspect with regard, in particular, to environmental protection and rising energy prices.
In the article, entitled “Planung energieeffizienter Produktionssysteme” [“Planning energy-efficient production systems”] by N. Weinert, published in ZWF, No. 105, 2010, it is pointed out that in the case of a production system it is possible for different operating states, such as the run-up, the warm-up, waiting states, the processing state or a switch-off operation to occur. These operating states, which have a different energy requirement, are assigned to appropriate blocks which are modeled and simulated.